GIS Annexation Update Process

About

Annexations are run through Community Development for processing, approved by the Planning Committee and then put in front of City Council for approval as an ordinance. Once it is approved, it is recorded in Laserfiche and sent by City Clerk to Weld County for inclusion. We may have annexation areas that we have included that Weld County has not yet put in their system, so the City of Greeley's CityLimits_Greeley in Greeley Base Data is the most authoritative for our limits. As a part of Community Development approval process, a shapefile of the annexation must be submitted to the assigned project manager. That project manager then submits the shapefile in a TDX ticket for the City Boundary & Zoning Change Submissions service type (2025: https://greeleygov.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/300/Portal/Requests/ServiceDet?ID=8384). 

Project

G:\GISAdmin\City Annexations\Annexation Updates.APRX

GIS Layers to Update

  1. Base Data
    1. CityLimits_Greeley
    2. GreeleyFireDistricts - Only edit these  once an exclusion petition has been approved. Michael Axelrad is Greeley's attorney (2025). These boundaries do not need to align with outer boundaries of City Limits but should include all of City Limits within
    3. TaxCodeAreas - Assign ShopAreaNa = Greeley; NAME = Greeley; TIF_District = Inside of City; TIF_Code =10; and Geocode = 10. Contact Michael Kibbee, Robert Miller, and Sonia Garcia to ask if the annexation(s) should be anything other than that. 
    4. VotingWards - Contact Jennifer Middleton & Heidi Leatherwood for ward assignment + CC the planner. 
  2. Regional Data
    1. CITYLIMITSNORTHCOLO
    2. Colo_Cities
  3. Terrain Data
    1. OriginBoundaryMask
  4. Community Development Data - These are edited by by Randy Mahaffey, 2025. After the other feature classes have been updated, the TDX ticket for the City Boundary & Zoning Change Submissions is reassigned to him to complete these updates.
    1. CEDistricts
    2. CityLim_Restrict
    3. CommercialElectricalDistrict
    4. GeneralInspectionDistricts
    5. Zoning 

Process for Whole City Limits

Classes: CityLimits_Greeley, Colo_Cities, CITYLIMITSNORTHCOLO, COMunicipalBoundaries[year]

  1. Export annexations data from Weld County's GIS Hub, https://gishub.weldgov.com/.
  2. Extract files and save to G:\RegionalData\County\Weld. Rename as Annexations[date].
  3. Export city limits from the state’s GIS hub, https://geodata.colorado.gov/. As of December 2024, the most applicable download option was called Municipal Boundaries from DOLA. Extract files and save within G:\RegionalData\State\Shp. Rename as DOLA_MunicipalBoundaries[year]. Change this suggested name + location, as appropriate.
  4. Open annexation project, G:\GISAdmin\City Annexations\Annexation Updates.APRX and add downloaded data to the project.
  5. Run the Project tool on the county data, if needed, to change spatial reference to NAD 1983 HARN StatePlane Colorado North FIPS 0501 (US Feet) and save the output as WeldAnnexations[year] to Regional Base Data if a WeldAnnexations[year] does not yet exist for the current year. Enter metadata. 
    1. If a WeldAnnexations[year] does already exist but is not the most updated, delete everything in the current WeldAnnexations[year], and copy + paste the latest data into it, rather than creating a new feature class.
  6. Compare WeldAnnexations[year] with WeldAnnexations. If anything is different, copy + paste the newly acquired parts of the city from WeldAnnexations[year] data into WeldAnnexations, rather than creating a new feature class.
  7. Run the Check Geometry and Repair Geometry tools on newly projected data.
  8. Compare CityLimits_Greeley to the WeldAnnexations[year] and rectify differences by copying + pasting special polygons from the WeldAnnexations[year] into CityLimits_Greeley. Do not remove any areas that CityLimits_Greeley shows as including but WeldAnnexations[year] does not.
  9. Merge and preserve the CityLimits_Greeley attributes. Verify after the merge that no oddball vertices, slivers within the city limits exist and rectify if needed.
  10. Calculate GIS_Acres, GIS_SqFt, and GIS_Perim fields of CityLimits_Greeley.
  11. Run the Project tool on the state data, if needed, to change spatial reference to NAD 1983 HARN StatePlane Colorado North FIPS 0501 (US Feet) and save the output as COMuncipalBoundaries[year] in Annexation Updates.gdb
  12. Run the Check Geometry and Repair Geometry tools on newly projected data.
  13. Run the Dissolve Boundaries tool on the repaired data, preserving the city name and city fields.
  14. Join the dissolved data onto Colo_Cities and select by an attribute of the dissolved data to confirm they all match.
  15. View the two layers in the map to detect data omissions from either data set too. Correct as needed from additional data sources.
  16. Join Colo_Cities onto the dissolved data (flip flop of the join you just did). Select all dissolved data and export it with the join intact ​as Colo_CitiesReplacement[date] in Annexation Updates.gdb.
  17. Delete fields of Colo_CitiesReplacement[date] to match the fields of Colo_Cities.
  18. Record Object ID of features in Colo_Cities.
  19. Run the Append tool, adding all Colo_CitiesReplacement[date] features to Colo_Cities. Select by attribute with Object ID for all the original Colo_Cities features. Delete this selection.
  20. Repeat steps 14-20 but with CITYLIMITSNORTHCOLO rather than Colo_Cities and with the following differences in step 16:
    1. Select by an attribute of CITYLIMITSNORTHCOLO and only export those which are not null. As of December 2024, this count was 45.
    2. Name the exported file as CITYLIMITSNORTHCOLO_Replacement[date]
  21. Run an Erase of CityLimits_Greeley from OriginBoundaryMask with output location into Annexation Updates.gdb. Copy + paste this newly erase feature into the OriginBoundaryMask feature class, compare for validity, and delete the old polygon mask feature. There may be an area on the east side of town where the mask isn't 1:1 with the City Limits, and that's okay. 

Process for City Limits Pro Layer

Because the Greeley’s CityLimits_Greeley is the most authoritative for our limits, this layer contains multiple data sources. Colo_Cities should have a definition query applied to it to omit its Greeley polygon from showing up in the layer because the state’s defined limits for Greeley may not align with ours.

  1. Load G:\LayerFiles\Pro Layers\City Limits.lyrx into the project.
  2. Verify layer has been updated with the changes made in Colo_Cities and CityLimits_Greeley are reflected in this layer. Repair data sources, display options, labeling, etc. and overwrite the existing pro layer as needed.

Process for Subsets of City Limits

Classes: TaxCodeAreas, VotingWards, GreeleyFireDistricts

  1. If the to-be-edited feature class:
    1. Fails to reach the edges of CityLimits_Greeley due to whole polygon(s) absence, etc., copy the individual polygon(s) from WeldAnnexations[year] (or other source) and paste special into the target feature class. This is the most likely case with annexations, and the developer should submit a shapefile to the project manager via email. That project manager then submits the shapefile in a TDX ticket for a City boundary change (2025: https://greeleygov.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/300/Portal/Requests/ServiceDet?ID=8384). 
    2. Extends beyond the limits of CityLimits_Greeley, run the Clip tool, using CityLimits_Greeley as the Clip Feature to trim the target feature class down to size.
      1. GreeleyFireDistricts is the exception to this process and should not be trimmed down. 
      2. Save Clip exports in Annexation Updates.gdb initially. Verify output. Append to the original feature class in base data or Community Development data and delete the old original features.
    3. Fails to reach the edges of CityLimits_Greeley in minor ways, align edges with CityLimits_Greeley through the creations of "dummy" features. Always give the dummy features an attribute of "TEST" or similar in the field on which the symbology is based. This makes them easier to ID, select, change attributes of, and/or delete after they've served their use. Merge the dummy features with target features and preserve the target feature’s attributes if the change is a minor alignment issue.
  2. Verify any newly created feature class in Annexation Updates.gdb aligns with limits of CityLimits_Greeley. 
  3. Calculate field as needed for each updated feature class. 
    1. Voting Wards - SQMILE_1 and ACRES_1
    2. GreeleyFireDistricts - DBO.GreeleyFireDistricts.AREA
    3. Unless otherwise instructed, apply the Inside the City (10) attributes for TaxCodeAreas​​​ fields:
      1. ShopAreaNa = Greeley
      2. NAME = Greeley
      3. TIF_District = Inside the City
      4. TIF_Code = 10
      5. Geocode = 10
  4. Verify each newly created feature class in Annexation Updates.gdb:
    1. Has complete attributes, except those explicitly detailed above to leave as <Null>.
    2. Has schemas matching the original feature classes’ schemas. Edit if needed.
  5. Once a class is deemed completely updated, either:
    1. Delete all the old data in the target feature class + paste in the data from the class in Annexation Updates.gdb, or
    2. Note the ObjectID of the features in the target feature class, append the data from the class in Annexation Updates.gdb, select by attribute with the old Object ID values, and delete those old features.
  6. Reassign the TDX ticket to Randy Mahaffey (2025) for all of the Community Development feature classes.*

*Because Zoning, Tax Code Areas, etc. classifications may be approved by City Council at a later date than the initial annexation (typically within 90 days), this may require a delayed follow up. 

 

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